By John E Phillips
Vestavia AL –-(Ammoland.com)- If I’m hunting property I’ve never hunted before, as soon as I obtain permission to hunt that land, I spend as much time as possible there, to learn as much as I can.
I’m going to hunt well in advance of deer season to learn where:
- all the potential food trees and other food sources are,
- all the agricultural fields are and
- the ways deer are likely to approach those fields.
If bow/deer season comes in at the first or the middle of October in the state I’m hunting, then by the first of September, I’ll already know if this region will have an acorn crop by seeing the green acorns on the trees. I’ll have learned when the farmer plans to cut his crops on which the deer have been feeding as well as where the deer will be feeding after their early food sources are gone.
For a pre-season scout plan to be effective, pinpoint not only where the deer will be feeding and bedding during the opening week of bow season but also where and what the deer will eat once that food supply is depleted. If you stock your freezer for a month, you have an idea of what you’ll eat first, what food is available in your freezer mid-way through the month, and what you’ll have left to eat at the end of the month. You will set your menus accordingly.
Deer generally follow that same timetable. When a primary food source is gone, they already have other food sources identified that they can eat. By understanding the different types of foods the deer will feed on as they deplete their primary food source, you can predict where and when deer may be each week of bow season. If you don’t know the deer’s food timetable, talk to your local department of conservation’s district wildlife biologist where you plan to hunt.
This wildlife specialist will be able to tell you the deer’s food sources and the order in which the deer will feed on those food sources in that area.
Once you have that information, then search for those food sources on the property. Look at the possible tree stand sites to hunt over those food sources each week of bow season. During my in-the-woods pre-season scouting 6- to 8-weeks before opening day, I’ll also pick the trees from which I’ll hunt. I’ll climb those trees with my stand and trim the limbs I need to eliminate to provide shooting lanes for me when I’m in my stand. I’ll prepare numerous stand sites before the season, particularly if I’m hunting private lands. Then on any day, I’ll have several, different stand sites for hunting set-up.
I also know when I go up those trees during deer season I won’t have to waste time cutting limbs and making noise in the tree before I start to hunt. Preparing stand sites for hunting 6- to 8-weeks before bow/deer season arrives is an important key to opening week bowhunting success.
This idea is just one that you’ll learn in the new Kindle eBook, “Jim Crumley’s Secrets of Bowhunting Deer” by John E. Phillips to make your bowhunting more productive. Go https://amzn.to/2GFFvC7 .
About John E Phillips
The author of almost 30 books on the outdoors, many on Amazon, Phillips is a founding member of the Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and an active member of the Southeastern Outdoors Press Association (SEOPA). Phillips also is the owner of Night Hawk Publications, a marketing and publishing firm, and president of Creative Concepts, an outdoor consulting group. Visit him Online at www.nighthawkpublications.com
